UN says peacekeeper killed in C.Africa

AdminJun 27, 2016

Bangui, Central African Republic, June 27, 2016 (AFP)

A UN peacekeeper has been killed in the troubled Central African Republic, where both blue helmets and French soldiers have been mired in sex abuse scandals, the UN mission in the country said Monday.
“A blue helmet was killed on June 24 in Bangui in the Central African Republic by unidentified armed men,” a statement from the MINUSCA mission said.
“The body was found in the general hospital of Bangui, in unclear circumstances,” it added.
A MINUSCA source said the soldier was from Senegal.
A 2013 coup in the CAR unleashed a wave of sectarian violence pitting Muslims against Christians that drove half a million people from their homes and saw thousands killed, prompting former colonial ruler France to send peacekeepers, followed by the African Union and the UN.
The UN mission known by its French acronym MINUSCA is made up of 12,600 foreign police and soldiers, as well as more than 500 foreign civilian staff.
It took over from an African Union force in September 2014 as the country was still reeling from the violence.
“An attempt on the life of a soldier of peace can be a war crime. Everything will be put in place to find those responsible and bring them to justice,” MINUSCA chief Parfait Onanga-Anyanga said in the statement.
A Moroccan blue helmet was killed in the country’s southeast in April in an attack attributed to the Ugandan rebel group Lord’s Resistance Army.
The image of French troops has been tainted by allegations of sexual abuse of children and physical abuse of locals in the Central African Republic. UN peacekeepers are also facing sexual abuse allegations.